In a status report filed before the court of Justice V K Shali on Monday, the DTC said it had only been given a “paper titled as working permission on the land without the demarcation, allotment or physical possession of the said site in question”.

Giving details of the three sites proposed by the DDA, the DTC has said that due to lack of clearances, change in land use and the demarcation and actual physical possession of the land, the work at the sites would take time to begin.

The DDA, in an affidavit filed in May, had identified sites in Rohini, Sarai Kale Khan and Karkari More to shift the 1,000 buses and other equipment presently housed at the depot, which was built on the Yamuna riverbed. The High Court had directed the DTC to shift the depot from its current site within nine months.

The transport corporation has also alleged that the land that has been indicated for the depot in Rohini does not have any access road. “The land required for building the road leading to the site in question is today under the possession of the DSIIDC. Thus till date, the DTC does not have any approach to the proposed site,” says the report filed through DTC counsel Sumeet Pushkarna. Irked by the delay, the High Court has directed the DDA to hold a meeting within four weeks to “arrive at a settlement,” regarding the land allotment.

Environmentalist Anand Arya had approached the High Court, seeking contempt of court action against the Delhi government for failing to remove the Millennium bus depot within the period granted by the court in a previously decided case. The environmentalist in his plea had said that the construction was against the Delhi master plan and zonal plan for the river.

Source-http://indianexpress.com/

To ensure safe driving and to bring down the number of accidents, Delhi Transport Officials (DTC) officials on Monday decided to train its drivers on simulators.

The decision comes a day after HT’s report on how the public transport buses in the Capital are on a killing spree. The DTC buses have killed 32 people this year till June 15. The corresponding figure for the same period last year was 27.

A team of senior DTC officials met on Monday to discuss measures for driver sensitisation. The training will be provided to the drivers in batches.

“We have proposed to make simulator training mandatory for DTC drivers and conductors. The training will help them learn road norms, adverse impact of speeding, jumping traffic signals and lane violations,” said Anil Shukla, additional commissioner of police (traffic).

According to DTC officials, the Automobile Association of Upper India, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers and the Institute of Driving Training and Research will help in the training.

DTC has no such facility and a proposal to install heavy vehicle simulators has been under consideration for the past few years.

The DTC had tied up with an Indian automobile manufacturing giant to develop a state-of-the-art training institute with hi-tech simulators for to train drivers.

A site for the institute was identified in West Delhi. “However, the project got stuck as the DDA declined to change the land use since it was a green land,” a DTC official said.

The traffic police have also asked the DTC to check records of their drivers, many of whom drove blueline buses before they went off the roads.

Source-http://www.hindustantimes.com